David Dallas dropped the first single from his third solo album Falling Into Place this morning on Soundcloud. It was produced by 41 and can be streamed/downloaded below.

Cynics, like most extremophilic organisms, thrive in conditions detrimental to most life on earth. Usually this means comments sections, but occasionally a few get together and start a really cool band. For once, it sounds somebody is taking advantage of their inhabitable setting – BnP are making the most of their sarcastic selves with clashing, banging determination on their first album, Welcome to Mediocrity.

There isn’t a lot of need for explanation, actually. Even their now-abbreviated name, Bits N’ Pieces, sums them up well enough as the really interesting result of things being hacked apart and stuck together. It’s almost cartoonish with the amount of random film samples and exaggerated stabs of noise swooping by. There’s a decisively choppy guitar sound that somehow manages to flavour hardcore punk with swamp, and I’m not sure how John Fogerty would feel about it. On top of it all, Stephen Neowens’ throaty agitation sounds like a really pissed off anthropomorphic bull with a huge fucking machete or some shit.

Such ideas often come across obnoxious when put to music, but the panicked, demented silliness of it all really catches you off guard this time. Something about it worked particularly well the last time they played up in Auckland – two or three songs into their set and the crowd was bouncing off the walls. It’s hard to imagine that wallowing in disenchantment could be so much fun, but this level of shitlessness shows that they’re proud of their apprehension. And then you get tracks like ‘In The Key Of Love’, oozing sogginess but ultimately providing a rewarding diversity. If BnP were writing this themselves, they’d have probably stopped writing ten sentences ago, but there really is a lot to get out of a band with such an immediate impact.

Facebook / Bandcamp

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From 2007, Real Groove magazine released four Awesome Feeling compilations, showcasing a diverse and exciting range of underground local talent. The Corner decided to pick up on that for the fifth volume and we’re back again for round six. We’ll be revealing one new artist/track every weekday throughout May, and posting the entire compilation for download at the end of the month.

Here’s the brand new video for The DHDFDs ‘Pessimist’, from their debut album French Fries (available to listen/buy over on their Bandcamp page.)

For their latest single ‘Sixpack’, JEFF The Brotherhood had the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach sit in to produce the track, lending a Weezer-like influence to it. It comes from their forthcoming EP Hypnotic Knights, available digitally next week.

The best psychedelia is immediately transfixing and transportative to other places, spaces; the “tape-recorder day dreams” of Purple Pilgrims — sisters Valentine and Clementine Nixon (ex-Christchurch, now based in Hong Kong — sure as hell fulfill that criteria. My very first encounter with their throbbing, opaque, cyclical figures and motifs, keening ethereal lyrical forms and electrifying guitar slash’n'slide had me motionless, head cocked, hallucinating a floating choir of angelic, beaming Alex Chiltons singing to me the saddest, most down-at-heel music the universe has ever known while the picture crumbled and decayed all around the edges.

Alongside their super-fuzzy outsider acid-folk dream-pop — which calls to mind Flying Saucer Attack, a rhythm-section-less Bardo Pond, a lower-fi Grouper, even compatriot Roy Montgomery, and which has garnered excited raves from writers all over the show — the Nixons also practice in the visual realm, producing drawing and collage work in their own ‘zines which is clearly of an analogous quality (see examples on their blog) and their debut release, a limited edition of 50 x 8″ lathe cut records featured multi-part cut out sleeves and a hand sewn 12 page zine. The release is still available as a download from PseudoArcana.

Kiran Dass noted that the duo were invited to play at the South By South West (SXSW) music conference in Austin, Texas, earlier this year. In the meantime set yourself down.. be enveloped in this swirling cloud of bilious psychedelic heartbreak; cry lysergic tears of longing and emptiness.

Facebook / Bandcamp / Blogspot

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From 2007, Real Groove magazine released four Awesome Feeling compilations, showcasing a diverse and exciting range of underground local talent. The Corner decided to pick up on that for the fifth volume and we’re back again for round six. We’ll be revealing one new artist/track every weekday throughout May, and posting the entire compilation for download at the end of the month.

As the New Zealand Herald report, there’s a war of words going on between the director and producers of Shihad: Beautiful Machine. The documentary was directed by Sam Peacocke who says that there was a lack of communication from the producers who worked on the film. To quote yesterday’s story:

“Peacocke said he had not been involved in the film’s post-production, or seen a final cut of the film. He criticised a lack of communication from producers at Pacific Lightworks.

But one of the producers, Graham Roa, today told Fairfax Media that Peacocke was “sociably inept”.

Roa also called Peacocke a “director for hire” and said the film was always designed to be producer-driven.”

Peacocke went on to say that he didn’t care about the criticism, and Stuff also spoke to Roa who “brushed aside claims” of the disagreement.

The documentary premiered officially last night and is in cinemas from today.

Watch the trailer for the film below:

In support of his new solo album Apocalyptic Love, which is out next week, Slash will play two arena shows in New Zealand this August with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators. Tickets for both shows are on sale May 22.

August 17 – Vector Arena, Auckland – Tickets available from Ticketmaster
August 19 – CBS Arena, Christchurch – Tickets available from Ticketek

Slash was last in New Zealand two years ago for the G-Tarankai music week.

Here’s the video for the first single from The Eversons’ debut album Summer Feeling, made by Trophy Wife Productions.

You can buy/listen to The Eversons’ album via Bandcamp.

Ab-Soul has just released his new album Control System, which features appearances from Danny Brown, Jhene Aiko, BJ the Chicago Kid, and Black Hippy crew pals Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar. Check it out in full below.

Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad is a column which sees a panel of writers for The Corner review a range of local singles and grade them out of 10. Check out the song below, read through their opinions and let us know in the comments section your own thoughts and what you’d like us to review next time around

[YouTube / Bandcamp]

[Grade: 6.6]

Danielle Street: I dig the video but in all honestly I’m not wild about the track. The 8-bit-esque electro-production is all good, however Dawn Marble’s vocals don’t do it for me. They are a little too sickly sweet and should sit further down in the mix. A decent dose of vocoder would work wonders here. In saying that, my kid loved it. [4]

Matthew Plunkett: This sounds like a bleary robot the morning after a long night. It’s a cosy, fuzzy atmosphere that is created – the voice just human enough to remain distinct from the machinery it is so obviously a part of. The vocal is compelling because it is so restrained and uncalculating, warbling under a blurry blanket and stuck inside its own world. This is not a song that is making demands of its listeners – it is not a strident call to revolution. Nevertheless it asserts its right to exist because it creates an experience that is intriguing in its unconcerned blissful isolation. [8]

Luke Jacobs: I first heard ‘Constant Longing’ by Fistful of Gems and bought the album straight away. I listened to the EP so so many times at the gym it is rather silly. So…I am a fan. In saying that though I felt this is actually the weakest track on the EP mainly because it’s much too shimmery and serious. It lacks the playfulness of the other tracks I have heard so far, and the main contributor to that feeling is that the vocals are really densely packed and feel odd in their multi-tracking. The texture is just all wrong – compare it with the Tom Tom Club-esque ‘Desert Battles’ or sustained attack of ‘Constant Longing’. It also takes much too long to get to the pay off. I hate being critical because the rest of this EP really does it for me, but this just falls short. [6]

Nicky Andrews: This diamond is almost flawless, with the snaking opening riffs, tight percussion and dreamlike keys combining to produce an utterly transcendent track. Dawn’s vocals are melodic without being overworked, and finally we have a recent electro-pop music video that isn’t just pushing out Dark Crystal references and dry ice for the hell of it. Look out Ruby Frost – here comes a new challenger! [9]

Stephen Clover: I love it when completely under-the-radar (heh) stuff like this comes across my desk. The video is gorgeous and reminiscent of all my favourite low-budg’ sci-fi nonsense from decades long past. The song is beautiful in its self-assured, catchy simplicity; not ostentatious or flashy, rather it’s solid, thrifty, workmanlike electro-pop which doesn’t blow all its pay on Thursday night but at the same time doesn’t so much save for its retirement as save for a new home on another, as-yet-undiscovered planet. Its remarkable in its unremarkability, whilst stroking most of my pleasure-centres. I’m instantly a big fan. [8]

Devon Kemp: Most anti-climactic pre-climax [errhm] experience ever [eee]. The beat is huge, but the mastering on the vocals is so severely overshadowed by its accompaniment that instead of its having escaped with some sort of lo-fi compensation, the vocal track just sounds unfinished. I also found that the song develops towards the chorus, then to the instrumental bit at around 1:46, but from then on becomes dynamically lacking, mainly due to the repetitive and undeveloping melody. There’s a lot of promise shown in ‘Diamond’. I only hope the artists work on the place their vocals have in the mix, because for the moment Fistful of Gems seem as unsure as I am. [6]

Michael Upton: Oh right, this is much more synthy than their old band Tiger Tones was… the track’s really, really rough and on first listen I was put off by that. After further listens I’m not so bothered by it, but this sort of self-consciously throwback sound is still not particularly my thing. The squashed mix means the beats are kinda swamped by everything else – which removes the whole thing a bit from a “dance music” / club context, to more of a weirdo 70s / 80s synthpop one. The not-so-strong sounding vox are kind of charming in the same way, I dunno, Night Jewel or any of those Italians Do It Better acts manage to get away with. I have no idea if these bods would know of Throbbing Gristle members Chris & Cosey’s slightly oddball synth pop, but that’s what this reminded me of. From what I’ve heard of their EP, other tracks are better than this one. [5]